Life in the Shadow Realm
by marinawings
Summary: A young girl begins to figure out that her world is not what it seems and that the man who calls himself her father is somehow part of it.
1. Father Dearest

I don't own the whole Matrix idea or any of the original characters. I do, however, own Sara/Moonlight and Michael/Falcon, their school, and most of the people they interact with.

This story is based on a dream I had in which I was Sara. I just thought it would make a great Matrix story. Hope you enjoy!! J

Chapter One

My name was Sara Flannigan. That name is no longer mine. For now, I am Moonlight. The story of how I came to be me is a strange tale. And now, if you'd care to listen, I shall tell it…

Sara Flannigan stood on the edge of the flat roof, the wind whipping her shoulder length blonde hair. Her large green eyes took in the city below. Why did it seem so… wrong? What was wrong with her life?

"Sara! Sara!"

Sara turned around and smiled. It was Audrey, her best friend, a tiny, dark girl with eternal energy. The two girls were so different that they made a great team. There was gentle, intelligent Sara and wild, energetic Audrey.

Sara adjusted the dark blue scarf around her neck. "Hey, Audrey. What's going on with you today?"

"Nothing much. Too bad we got stuck in two different third grade classes." the dark girl replied. "I can't help it I'm not as smart as you. They shoulda known that and put us together anyway!"

Sara smiled. She knew her friend would not be able to handle the English class _she _was in. "Well, how do you like third grade, anyway?" she asked. "Any cute boys?"

Audrey shrugged. "Nah. Not like in your class." She winked and nudged her pale-skinned friend. "Not like Michael Yamato."

Sara grinned. Michael was a mutual friend of Sara and Audrey, the third addition to their trio. He was also in the "smart class." And he was very cute. Half-Japanese and half-Irish, he had pale skin, silky black hair, and huge, beautiful blue eyes. He was the smallest third grade boy, but he was also the fastest and one of the smartest.

"Shouldn't he be here soon?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah. He's always late, you know."

At that moment, Michael burst onto the roof, carrying his book bag and a lunchbox.

"Hey, Michael!!" both girls exclaimed.

The next day, Sara walked home from school. Just as she did when she was always alone, she felt like she did not belong in the world. Something about it was so… fake. She remembered a time when she was five and she had jumped over the back of her father's recliner chair. She had just leaped over it with no help. Her parents had gone all crazy and told her never to do that again. So she hadn't. Now…

She peered up at the buildings lining the alley where she walked. She grinned, wondering if she could jump them. Audrey would say it was her overactive imagination again. Maybe it was.

Suddenly, something bright blue lying near a dumpster caught her eye. She rushed to it and bent to examine it. It was a cloak, beautifully wrought, with some sort of silver design on the back. She gently picked it up. It didn't smell anything like the nearby garbage. It smelled… just… old. Very old.

Sara unfurled the cloak and gasped. The design, the colors… she had seen them all before. She closed her eyes, thinking hard, trying to recall where she had seen that design before. Ahh! Yes!! In her history book!! This cloak was from the Middle Ages. It was a knight's cloak, woven with the symbol of some great lord, a duke or something.

Suddenly, there was the sound of footsteps. Sara turned to look behind her. A man in black was entering the alley. He was dressed the same way her father always dressed-- black suit, white shirt, a tie, and sunglasses. And it scared her.

Gathering the knight's cloak to her, Sara ran. She ran as fast as she could to the apartment building where she lived with her family. If you could call it a family. Somehow, Sara knew she did not quite fit in with them.

"Sara."

It was her father.

"Come in!"

Sara's father slid into her room, his face, as usual, devoid of emotions. "Sara, your mother said that you came home quite disturbed from school today. Do you have something that doesn't belong to you, Sara?"

Sara frowned. Did he know she had the cloak? If so… how? "What do you mean, Father?" She had always called him father. How could she call him dad or daddy? He was nothing like other fathers. He seemed to have no emotions. He never did anything with the family. All he did was watch and talk on his cell phone with his coworkers, Johnson and Brown.

"Did you steal something, Sara?" He sat down slowly in her beanbag chair, taking off his glasses melodramatically.

"No." Sara frowned. No, she hadn't stolen it. She had found it. Someone had thrown it away. It belonged to her now.

Mr. Flannigan crossed his long, thin legs and ran a hand through his dark hair. "Now Sara… you have so much potential. One day, I will ask you to join me. But for now…"

Join him? What was he babbling about?

"You may have noticed by now that you take more after me than you take after your mother."

It was true. She looked nothing like her dark-haired, brown eyed mother. Come to think of it, though, she didn't really look like her father, either. No, not at all. He was tall, slim, and pale like her, true, but he was also dark-haired. And his nose, eyes, and mouth in no way resembled hers. Now that she was considering it… she began to think that she was adopted.

"Sara, I want you to help my fellow… real estate agents… when you grow older. But for now…" He stood with a slow, graceful motion. "For now… stay out of trouble." Then he left the room.

"He's not my father." It took Sara a moment to realize that she had whispered the words aloud. She shook her head to clear it of all the strangeness that she had experienced. For some reason, when she saw Mr. Flannigan coming, she wanted to run.

And what was he talking about anyway? He wanted her to join his company and help him and his coworkers? Hmmmm…. It was all so strange.

There was a war.

A local gang in the city was trying to take it over. They had somehow gotten hold of a weapons store and they were holding the citizens in panic.

Sara was afraid when the teachers sent all the children home from school four hours early. She was very afraid because she had to walk home from school. She was an eight-year-old child for heaven's sake!!

She began running down the alley, feeling more afraid than she had ever felt before. She could hear screams and gunshots all around her. What if some of those gang members came down this alley? She heard footsteps behind her and picked up her pace.

"Sara!"

She stopped running with relief. It was Michael. He would protect her. He quietly took her hand and they began walking together.

"I'll take care of you," Michael whispered.

They soon neared Sara's apartment building.

Suddenly, a man with a machine gun jumped out from behind them and pointed his gun at them. "Are you scared, little kids?" he sneered.

Both of them nodded. Michael pushed Sara behind him, ready to defend her with his life.

And then, Mr. Flannigan appeared out of nowhere and with one swift motion, shot the gang member in the head, killing him instantly. Sara's father turned to her and Michael. He was pointing his gun at Michael!

"No! Father! If you shoot him, I'll never join you!"

There was a moment of silence. Mr. Flannigan holstered his gun. "If the two of you know what's best for you, you'll never tell anyone what happened here." And suddenly, he jumped on top of the apartment building!!!

Maybe Sara _did_ take after her father…


	2. Where Is Michael?

Thanks for the review, Hellix!! Hope everybody (does that imply lots of people? Hehe.) enjoys this!!

Chapter Two

"Where's Michael?" Sara grabbed Audrey's hands.

"I don't know." The small girl's eyes were huge. She jumped at the sound of a bomb exploding.

The two girls stood in Sara's living room, staring out of the large window at the carnage outside. It was awful. That gang had started a horrible war in the city.

Suddenly, Mr. Flannigan strode past the girls, his arms crossed. Chills swept up Sara's spine as she remembered the way he had leaped that building. And now… What was that he was mumbling?

"This isn't supposed to happen, Jones. We have to do something about it. We must make some changes in the local programs." He went to stand in front of the big, crystal-clear window, talking on his cell phone. As usual.

The two girls watched him, the one tall and pale and blonde, the other small and dark and brunette.

Mr. Flannigan noticed them watching and lowered his voice to a whisper.

Sara turned back to her friend. "I'm so worried about Michael. I haven't seen him since yesterday. And I miss him already."

Audrey nodded. "I'm scared for him, too, Sara."

Mr. Flannigan gave the girls an annoyed look and stalked out of the room. Sara watched him go, feeling a mix of fascination and disgust for the man who called himself her father. "Did you hear what he was saying, Audrey?" she asked. "What on earth was he talking about? Programs? He sounded like he was responsible for the way things go in this city or something…"

Audrey shrugged. "Your dad is weird, Sara," she said.

Sara nodded. _My dad… _Or whoever he was…

Days passed and the war raged on. Sara and Audrey still could find no sign of Michael.

Sara felt as if her world was collapsing. She was doubting her father's identity, she was afraid of the gang and the war, and most of all, she was missing Michael Yamato.

Days became years. The war came close to destroying the city where Sara lived. Strangely, it was her father and his coworkers who stopped the war. Somehow, that scared Sara.

Nearly ten years after the beginning of the war, Sara and Audrey graduated together at its end. Sara graduated as salutatorian. She was sure Michael would have been valedictorian if he had stayed in the city. And as she addressed the audience that had come to see the graduates, she missed no one more than Michael Yamato. She even missed him more than Mr. Flannigan, who had been unable to attend for business reasons.

Sara finished her speech and sat down. She sat right beside Audrey Fleming.

Audrey smiled at her best friend. "Good job, Sara," she whispered, her cobalt blue eyes alive with the excitement of graduating. "I'm sure Michael would have been proud."

Michael… would his ghost never leave the two girls? Was he indeed still alive? Would they ever see him again?

These questions continued to plague Sara. On the day that she registered for Community College in the city, she carried the knight's cloak in her book bag and remembered that strange day when she and Michael had run down the alley in the midst of the war… the day when her "father" had pointed a gun at Michael and jumped over a building.

"Curiouser and curiouser, just like in _Alice in Wonderland," _Sara muttered to herself, looking up at the college which she would attend. It was a single, tall building in the heart of the city, surrounded by parks and gardens. At its top floor was a renowned restaurant, the 33rd Floor Grill. Sara decided to go there soon, maybe with Audrey, who was also attending the Community College. Maybe there would be cute guys there. Everyone said it was the best place to pick up a date.

Sara shrugged and adjusted the book bag on her shoulders. As she did so, the bright blue cloak fluttered from her book bag and settled on the grass. She hurriedly bent to retrieve it, and as she did so, caught a glimpse of a short, slim young man with pale skin and black hair walking in one of the gardens.

Could it be him? Michael?

Sara ran towards him, the cloak streaming behind her like a banner.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere came Mr. Flannigan. His hand was suddenly gripping her arm. "Daughter, it's time to go home," he said. "I signed you up for karate classes with an associate of mine and you begin tonight."

Sara turned to him and frowned. "Karate classes, father?"

"You never know what kind of ruffians you will meet at college, Sara." Mr. Flannigan began steering her towards his car, a big, black thing. "I want you to be prepared. And I also want you to be prepared to help out my… company. I think you will be an asset to us one day. You already show great promise. You have excellent skills in manipulating the… programs."

Sara narrowed her eyes on him as he opened the car door for her. "Father… what… programs?"

Mr. Flannigan gave a half smile. "The ones all around us, daughter." And he sat in the car and began to drive.

Sara stared out at the garden where she had seen the person who could have been Michael. It was empty now. She turned to look at her "father." Programs? Something about the word jogged her memory. Oh yes!! She remembered now. It had been during the war, by the living room window. He had said something about changing programs to one of his… associates.

Hmmm.

That evening, Sara began karate classes. To her surprise, they were held in an abandoned dance studio, and she was the only student. Her instructor was a master of martial arts who promised to teach all of them to her. His name was Watson.

Sara came home from the class feeling strangely separated from the rest of the world. Something was not normal in her life… Was it her? Was it her father? Was it the city? Or was it just… the world itself? Sara was going to find out. And she was going to do something about it!


End file.
